I’m all for government incentives to buy vehicles that are better for the climate but here’s the thing, companies are greedy. If a company can sell a car for $20k and make a profit, but the government suddenly is going to give me $5k to buy that car, that car will somehow mysteriously become $25k and that same company will advertise that car for $20k with a tiny little asterisk next to the price.
It will be interesting to see what companies like Rivian, Tesla, BYD, Volkswagen, etc. do with pricing once these incentives go away, and they will go away unfortunately.
There needs to be a better way to incentivize this so that the “savings” doesn’t immediately get funneled into billionaires pockets. I know that any incentive needs to be a slow burn and require some work so that the owner is motivated to go through the trouble because they have something to gain. I have no idea how to do this. Maybe remove property tax on the vehicles over 5 years? Yearly income tax credit? Government subsidized car loans? Extended warranties? Reverse road tax (you get more money the more you drive it)? Free oil changes for the life of the car (/s)?
I mean what you really want to do is get people to drive these vehicles, not just purchase them. One generally follows the other since nobody buys something that expensive and lets it sit. But the idea is to get people away from fossil fuel ICE engines, not really get people to buy EVs.
I see your point, but as a counterpoint… I just bought a used Chevy Volt. It qualified for the Used EV Tax Credit because it was under $25k. While shopping around I did notice that most used EVs were right around the $24,999 price regardless of their features and I was fortunate enough to find one that was fully loaded and had very low miles at this price. Without the tax credit this car would probably have been priced closer to $27k but because the tax credit exists if they had priced it that high, it likely wouldn’t have sold.
I feel very fortunate to have found this particular car, at this price, while we still have the tax credit available.
so…
No more incentatives to buy tesla?
Oh yea i forgot they already got a divorce 🤣
Who’s able to buy a new car in this economy anyway?
It’s not just tax credits for new cars, they are also getting rid of the Used EV Tax Credit which has helped to keep the prices of used EVs (relatively) lower.
Sucks if you wanted a different EV, like Rivian, Leaf, that toy battery truck coming soon…
